100,000 dead drum fish blanket banks of Arkansas River

Ozark
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Around 100,000 dead drum fish lined the banks of the Arkansas River near the city of Ozark, 125 miles northwest from the capital city of Little Rock.

According to Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, 20 miles of the river were filled with dead drum fish floating in the water and lining up either side of the banks of the river. The fish kill was discovered last Thursday night by a tugboat operator.

Tests have been conducted by officials on some of the dying animals that have been collected. While there is no official statement about the cause as of this posting time, officials are pointing to some type of disease for being responsible for the massive number of drum fish killed.

"The fish kill only affected one species of fish," Stephens told CNN. "It is was a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish [in the river]."

Fish are not the only ones dying in this part of the state. Just before midnight on New Year's Eve, about 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings fell from the sky. As in the case of the fish kill along the Arkansas River, the cause is still unknown.

Although the two incidents occurred one after the other, Stephens pointed out that they were unrelated.